


The Sea Witch

by The_Almighty_Ro



Category: Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid (1989), The Little Mermaid - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid, F/F, Gen, Magic, Mermaids, fairytales - Freeform, ursula isn't actually a tentacle lady in this one, well sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 13:44:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2470367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Almighty_Ro/pseuds/The_Almighty_Ro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The familiar tale of The Little Mermaid takes a slightly different route when the sea witch falls for the mermaid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sea Witch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LupaDracolis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LupaDracolis/gifts).



> This was written as a birthday gift for my friend Toni, who is all about mermaids. Sorry it's over a week late. Dx
> 
> Huzzah for my first completed new work in like a year tho!

"I'll need a few of your scales for the spell."

The girl blinks at you as you begin gathering the ingredients needed to spin your magical web, large, dark eyes that refract the dim light of your seaside hovel. Her head is cocked in confusion, almost bird-like as she stares at you; inhuman. You hate dealing with mermaids and their whims.

"Scales?" She asks. Her voice is hypnotic like a siren's song.

You resist the urge to roll your eyes as you set your vials and packets beside your little iron cauldron, turning to face her where she bobs in the water just through the hole in your floor. "From your tail. I need them to personalize the potion just for you, so others can't drink it and get the same effect for free. I'm a business woman Ariel, I can't just give away magic fix-its like it's going out of style. I don't run a charity."

"Oh," is all she says.

Stupid girl.

"Speaking of charity," you continue, turning back to your work table to begin chopping and mixing ingredients, words of power whispering in your mind as you go. "There's the matter of your own payment, child."

Instantly Ariel looks doubtful, and you can't have her bolt after you've already gotten started.

"I don't accept gold if that's what you're worried about," you say quickly, "Material items aren't my bag unless they're important. For instance your father's trident-"

She tenses up.

"Would be adequate if I were doing more than just giving you legs, but it would be considered overpayment and I'm a fair woman," you finish and she relaxes.

She takes a moment to let your words rolls around her pretty head as she drifts with the water. "What is it you want then?" She finally asks.

"What indeed." Your hand extends toward her, palm up and open, almost an invitation. Ariel is rightfully hesitant, but she still slaps four perfect, shimmering green scales into your hand with the same determination she showed when she popped up through your floor and demanded your services. It's victory as good as any, and your grin at her as you retract your hand, setting two of the pearly scales aside for later and tossing the other two into the blackness of your cauldron; instantly, the ingredients start to glow and you mix them slowly.

"We'll discuss your price at a later date, when I have accurately assessed what it is you can give me," you say absently. Your knife gleams wickedly in the lowlight as you take it and run the blade the length of your index finger, letting exactly two drops of blood drip into the mixture. "For now I suppose you can relax."

She hesitates. "That potion will make me human for sure though?"

"You bet your new, sweet human ass it will."

The smile she flashes you in response is bright and full of sharp teeth; you think your heart flutters a little.

~

The ball is extremely boring and full of men and women in poofy gowns and stuffy high collar clothing, but at least the snack table is pretty decent. You both are hovering there awkwardly, you stuffing your face and bag with food whilst no one is paying you no mind, and her scanning the crowd anxiously for her prince with her pretty, new human eyes. It makes you want to smack her and tell her to calm the hell down, but you're suddenly loathe to muss up all the hard work you put into making her the most stunning belle at the ball.

What the hell is wrong with you?

"Calm down, child," you snap after swallowing the crab you'd been chewing on irritably. "He isn't here yet, don't work yourself up over it."

"I can't help it!" She says helplessly. Her hands keep wringing themselves, twisting and tugging at the rings and bracelets you'd lent her, and you narrow your eyes at them. Instantly she stops and smooths the fabric of her skirt in an effort to appease you. "I just...what if he doesn't like me?"

You snort and take a vicious bite of marinated pork, eyeing her up and down. It's your finest work yet, you think, taking in the way you'd changed the scales that had flecked her skin into charming splashes of freckles and her hair, once a bright and fiery red, into almost a reddish-brown. Her eyes were still large, but the greenish-blue of her new human eyes softened the shock of them and made her doe-eyed and innocent looking.

Which was ironic, since she'd probably killed her fair share of humans before falling for this one.

Her work was wasted on this guy, that was for sure.

"If he doesn't like you, then I'll turn him into a prawn and fry him up for you," you tell her with feeling and she smiles at you, grateful. The effect is considerably lessened by her new form, but your heart still gives a little tug at the sight of it. God, this was bad.

It's another half hour before the music stops and everyone turns to the sound of trumpet music announcing the arrival of the royal family as they glide down the winding stairs, clapping politely for them. Someone announces the king and queen needlessly as part of the pomp and circumstance; the prince comes next with a pretty dark-haired girl on his arm. You assume that's his princess sister.

"That him?" You ask, pointing at him.

She nods slowly, swallowing her nervousness down as she stares wide-eyed at him. "Yeah...yeah, that's Erik."

"Good. Go get him as soon as the broad splits."

The broad does indeed split, but Ariel doesn't go after her prince and it's kind of starting to piss you off. She's still just sort of standing there, wringing her hands again like a fool, eyes darting in a direction that is very decidedly not his.

"Ariel," you begin very sweetly, "what the hell are you doing?"

She blinks innocently at you, legitimately innocently, because this girl had exactly zero guile with which to bewitch you. "Waiting until he isn't busy?"

You spare a glance at the prince and note that he is very much not busy. In fact, he looks incredibly bored.

"I'm pretty sure that he'd appreciate the interruption," is your dry reply as you gesture at him.

Ariel blinks and follows where you've pointed, her brows furrowed in confusion. "That's not the prince," she says at last.

....what?

"....what?"

She blows air out through her nose, clearly as annoyed with you as you are with her.

"That's not the prince," she repeats.

You take a moment to process this and decide to just come straight out and ask. "What do you mean he's not the prince? He's THE prince!"

"Well he isn't my prince," she replies stubbornly.

This doesn't make sense, because you could have sworn you both were talking about him when he came strutting down the stairs with that girl on his arm. In fact, no other young man came down after them, so...?

"Okay, help me out here. He's not the prince." You gestures at him just to be sure and she nodded. "Right, so if he isn't your prince, then who the HELL is it?!"

Ariel, in a fit of boldness you were sure surprised the both of you, took your head by the chin and turned your gaze. Her skin was cool as the sea in the early morning and it raised goose flesh on your arms as it seeped into you at the point of contact and slithered all the way down into your bones, where it refused to dissipate. For one stupid moment you thought maybe you were going to lean in and kiss her like a fool, but then your eyes focused on the pretty princess who'd been led in on the prince's arm and it all came crashing down. Suddenly the chill of her skin was no longer pleasant.

"THAT'S the prince!" She said giddily.

"No, that's the princESS," you manage a little dumbly.

Your mermaid huffed in annoyance as she, thankfully, retracted her hand. "His name is Erik! Of course that's the prince!"

"Erika, she the prince's twin. They're parents are into the matching names thing," you explained. You recalled the story she told you of rescuing her 'prince', how she'd heard someone shout 'Erik' over the roar of the waves and crackle of fire as 'he' fell from the burning ship. It was entirely possible that they both had fallen from the ship, or that the princess had been in disguise as her brother so that she could go sailing in his stead; lord knew that she enjoyed the hobby just as much as he did, but she didn't have to luxury to go as often because of her gender. Either way, it reminded you that merpeople had no concept of human gender, so of course she'd mixed them up.

"Well whatever, that's still Erik!" She heard Ariel huff.

With a cough to try and cover her distraction and the sudden swell of hope, you turned to and grabbed her by the shoulders. It was time to go to work. "Go talk to her."

Ariel flinched back but couldn't move away. "Wh-what?"

"Go. Talk. To. Her." You repeated. "That's why we came here, right? Go talk to her, woo her, something, just don't waste the time and effort I put into you by not going up to her at all! She's even free now, see?"

And indeed she was now by herself, the group of admirers who had surrounded the princess dissipating to move on to ladies more receptive to their charms.

But Ariel looked frozen in place, out of real terror it looked like. So you bit the bullet and softened your tone. "Ariel," you began gently to catch her attention, "Ariel, you're beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. There's no way in hell she won't like you, fucking go for it."

"But what if-"

"No 'buts' or 'what if's' you silly child, get over there and get your princess!"

You make a show of smiling encouragingly at her, and she smiles hesitantly back before grabbing your hand in both of her's. The fact that she doesn't have webbing between clawed fingers still surprises you.

"Ursula...thank you," she says, and her tone is so heartfelt and thankful that you think you might drown in the warmth of it. 

What a shame she was about to flounce off to go get her girl.

"Whatever," is your stiff reply, "Now stop wasting your time with me and get over there."

With a last smile, she does exactly that.

~

You don't stick around to see the results of your work, there really isn't a point. The scenario has been played out over a hundred times in your lifetime since you took on the mantle of Sea Witch from your predecessor, even more in her's, that you know almost exactly how it'll play out. Mermaid presents herself to her prince (in this case princess), their royal love falls almost instantly for her, they get married, have a million kids (or adopt in this case), live happily ever after the end. It's been like this since the first Ursula gave the first mermaid legs to walk the world of man, like some weird repeating cycle, and it certainly wasn't going to break with you.

(No matter how much you secretly wished it would.)

You pause halfway down to your beachside hovel, staring at your reflection in the broken window of an abandoned cottage. The princess was considered a great beauty both here and in other lands, full of all the typical things princesses were supposed to be full of. Her admirers even stretched to the people of the sea now, thanks to Ariel. You'd never cared much before about such things, being the Sea Witch; being sort of homely came with the territory.

Thanks to the trespasses of the very first Sea Witch, none of those that followed were allowed any sort of Happy Ending, and you were fine with that! Really! So then...why did the sight of your soft, round face, lank brown hair, and mud-colored eyes fill you with so much despair now? Why were you suddenly uncomfortable in your equally soft and round body?

You sniffled pathetically and immediately turned away, already knowing the answer: you were jealous and stupidly in love with that air headed mermaid. And you missed her already, to top it all off.

"Ursula!"

In fact, you could almost hear her calling your name-

"Ursula! Please wait!"

Oh wait that's actually her.

You turn to see her dashing unsteadily towards you, the ridiculously poofy skirt of her gown balled in her hands to keep from tripping. Mystified by her appearance, you don't bolt immediately and it gives her the time to close the distance between you and all but knock you both over as she uses you to stop. You can't exactly complain now that you've got an armful of mermaid, but you make a show of being incredibly disgruntled about it.

"Thank goodness I caught you!" She exclaims and the relief in her voice sort of makes your breath catch. There aren't a lot of people around who are happy to see you unless you can do something for them.

You steady the both of you and put some distance between you just in case she can feel your heart pounding out of your chest. "What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your princess?"

Ariel looks a little bashful about the mention of her lady love, and also a little sad, but you think that's just you. "Funny thing about that," she starts.

"What did you do?" You sigh. Maybe you shouldn't have left a socially inept mermaid stutter out a love confession.

"Nothing!" She says too quickly and shrinks away when you narrow your eyes suspiciously. "Really, I didn't do anything," she reiterates, "I did everything you told me to."

"But?"

"Buuuut she wasn't interested."

Oh.

Well, you supposed you should have thought about the fact that she wasn't interested in girls. Then again, you hadn't thought that her 'prince' was actually a 'princess', so it wasn't like you could have made a contingency plan on the fly like that. Still, despite your own feelings, you felt a little bad.

"I'm sorry your princess is straight," you offer awkwardly.

Ariel cocks her head at you in that inhuman way that you find way too adorable for words. "Straight?"

You color and rush to explain, "She likes boys instead of girls."

"Oh!" She laughs a little and it makes you feel sillier. "She doesn't like boys!"

What. "What?"

"She doesn't like boys!"

Okay. "So then you just aren't her type?" This whole line of questioning is starting to give you a headache.

"Sort of," she wheedles, her hands clenching subconsciously in her skirt; you want to grab them to make them stop. "She isn't 'interested in girls' either." The way she says it makes it sound like a direct quote, which would be amusing in any other situation, but the weight of her words is sort of doing some damage to your higher brain functions at current.

"Oh," you say simply, "so...what you're saying is she isn't really interested in...anyone?"

She nodded.

"At all?"

Another nod.

"Huh." That had certainly never happened before. "I'm...I'm sorry?"

Ariel did a curious thing and laughed, high and tinkling, and you bristled a little despite the fact that she wasn't mocking you. "For what? It was a long shot anyway, you said that when you have me legs."

That was certainly true, but still...

She must have seen the reluctance in your face because she softened her voice, looking a little sad. "It does suck that it didn't work out...but she was very interested in fostering relations with my people and suggested us being friends would help that."

"You told her you were a mermaid?" You asked incredulously. "You told her you were a mermaid and she BELIEVED you?!"

"Yeah? Why wouldn't she?"

Because most people think mermaids are myths you wanted to say, but decided to let that drop before you gave yourself a headache. Some things weren't worth dwelling on.

Pinching the bridge of your nose in an attempt to dispel your annoyance, you asked, "So what are you going to do now? Your princess is a bust and you've got three more days to waste as a human."

Her face contorted in thought. "Well...I suppose I could pay you now and go home early to tell my father the news..."

Your heart sank a little at that; secretly you'd been hoping she might to hang around a little longer before disappearing from your life forever.

"...oooor, you could show me around the village up the cliff? You kind of promised you would and now I have an abundance of time before the spell wears off!"

Your leapt into your throat and you had to swallow it back down before speaking again, keeping your tone cool to hide how hopeful you were. "I suppose I could do that," you managed, pleased with your fake apathy, "but there is still the matter of your payment. I'll need that before we do anything else."

Ariel threw you the sulkiest sulk that you'd ever seen and you had to bite back a laugh to maintain your businesslike demeanor. Payments were serious business for someone like you and she had to know that. Didn't matter how fluttery she made you feel, she was still a client first.

"What do I owe you?" She asked warily.

You made a show of thinking it over, tapping your chin and making humming noises.

"Close your eyes," you said finally.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it Ariel, before I charge you extra."

She huffed but did as she was told. You had to do this quickly before you lost your nerve, so very carefully you leaned forward until you could feel her cool breath on your quickly warming face. With a sharp inhale, you pushed forward so that your lips were pressed together awkwardly. It wasn't exactly an ideal first kiss; she was taller than you and your noses were smushed, but it was certainly better than nothing and her lips were soft and tasted like the salted caramel she'd been eating nervously at the ball.

When you finally pulled away, you realized she was staring at you with wide, green eyes and you flushed dark and hot as you all but jumped away from her. 

"P-Paid in full," you said and hated the quaver in your voice. You couldn't stand to look at her without feeling like a moron and so you stared at your shoes as you fought the urge to bolt.

"Ursula?"

You winced and chanced a glance up at her. Long, delicate fingers were pressed to her lips as she observed you with the same curiosity she'd had when you were showing her how to walk and dance just two days prior. Intense and almost predatory, intent on not missing the smallest twitch of your face.

"What?" You croaked defensively.

She blinked and then smiled at you, soft and fond as she looped her arm through your's and dragged you in a direction that was most definitely not your hovel. Confused, you glanced down at your linked arms then back up at her suddenly delighted face as you struggled to keep up. What the hell?

"Ariel. Ariel where are we going, we have to change out of these gowns. Ariel stop," you pleaded, halfheartedly trying to tug her to a stop. It was hard to stop her when she seemed so excited.

"No way!" She exclaimed, "We're heading into town! No time to change, not when we have the whole evening to make merry!"

Unable to refuse her, you just let her lead you by the proverbial nose, still mystified by before. Maybe later you'd work up the nerve to ask her what she saw in your face...but not right now.

Right now you'd just enjoy having her on your arm. Feelings can come after.


End file.
